AI: Everyday Lives

One of the things that we cultural anthropologists are interested in is people’s everyday lived experiences. By spending a lot of time with people, watching them, participating with them in their daily lives, and asking them questions that we are able to gain insights into their society and culture.

I am interested in getting to know our readers better. I’m curious what the demographics of our readership is like, but I am more interested in how your everyday lives shape your interests. So, I want to know more about who you are and what your life is like.

What is a typical day in your life like? How does a typical day in your life reflect your personality and your interests?

The Afternoon Inqueery (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Queereka community. Look for it to appear Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 3pm ET.

Will

Will is the admin of Queereka, part of the Skepchick network. They are a cultural/medical anthropologist who works at the intersections of sex/gender, sexuality, health, and education. Their other interests include politics, science studies, popular culture, and public perceptions and understandings of anthropology. Follow them on Twitter at @anthrowill and Facebook at facebook.com/anthrowill.

12 Comments

An average day? Wake up around 8-8:30 in the morning, take a shower, make coffee, get dressed (usually in that order).

Get to work 9:30-10p. I’m a software engineer in the video game industry, so I’ll spend my day talking to various people about varied aspects of the project I’m on. Browse the web while the code compiles: politics, skepticism, queer community, religion/athiesim, general news, gaming sites, web comics (PA, GWS, etc) and other geek culture main stays.

Head home around 7pm, watch TV with my spouse and make dinner. My spouse gets up at 5:30, so she’s in bed early. Afterwards, it’s an hour or so of political commentary. I make her lunch for the next day, and then I have time for an hour or so of recreational gaming with a beer or two.

In bed around 1am.

Sprinkled throughout most days I deal with issues of my own gender identity and expression — but that doesn’t have much influence on my day-to-day. It’s more emotional ups and downs and the dysphoria comes and goes.

I started on sports titles, transitioned into racing sims and then found myself making Action/Adventure. My experience is around gameplay, animation control, pathing, AI and that sort of thing. I like the creativity and collaborative aspects of the job.

She’s a school librarian. Double masters in education and library science, and certainly doesn’t get paid for that level of expertise. She loves getting kids into reading and helping them become better information consumers, though.

It occurs to me that I only answered the first question but not the second. Does that reflect my personality and interests? Yes, mostly yes. I’ve been lucky in that my hobby became my profession. I have other interests that I don’t indulge in as much. Music, mainly. I use to be a pretty good bassist, but I’m out of practice, now.

I think I’d be doing the same things whether in was AMAB or AFAB, since I’ve never felt overtly pressured to follow or not follow interests. I guess I’m lucky in that refused too. Or blissfully ignorant. Not sure how to tell those two apart, really.

My typical day is very dependant on season. In summer I wake up at about six, get to work by seven, then either sit in a loader or drive truck until six pm. If any machinery breaks down I fix it then go home.

In winter my whole life gets scrambled. My entire life revolves around snow. There’s times when I don’t work for weeks and I do nothing but watch movies and read stuff. Then, when it snows I go to work. Sometimes it’s two or three days on end, and I sleep in a loader when I can find the time. Most of the time though I get called in every couple days and work for around twenty to thirty hours before getting another few days off.

I graduated HS a couple months ago, and I have yet to find work, so my days pretty much suck right now.

I live with my boyfriend, and we get up sometime between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. We play World of Warcraft on and off, and check the internet for job postings, submitting resumes and whatnot. Every couple days we go out to submit an application in person, and once a week (ish) his nephew (who is our age) and his girlfriend come over to hang out with us.

Sometimes we’ll play any of our musical instruments, do origami, read, or play with our cats.

I read from my Google Reader subscriptions every day. Skepchick, Teen Skepchick, and Queereka are all among them. There’s also the Bilerico Project, MoveOn.org, Change.org, Joe.My.God, XKCD (web comic), Questionable Content (web comic), and Orcish Army Knife (an individual’s blog about World of Warcraft).

I also have my own blog that I post to a couple times a month. It’s a mix religion/politics/WoW blog, nothing personal.

6:00-6:30 – Wake up. Exact time can’t be determined due to the inconsistent number if snoozes I choose to indulge in. Alarm clock is mymy phone, so I have a myriad of songs to choose from as the first thing I hear every day. It’s currently The Beatles “Good Morning, Good Morning” but the roosters at the beginning of the song are starting to piss me off so I’m going to have to change it soon. It sometimes takes me up to a half hour to choose the perfect wake-up song, so I’ll have to do that when I have more time.

6:30 – Go downstairs, trip over and then feed our various animals.

6:30-7:00 – Exercise and read either the “New Humanist” magazine or my city’s local zine.

7:00-7:15 – Quick shower

7:15-7:30 – Observe my husband and son ready themselves for work and school while I wait for my goddamn shitwhore laptop to boot up.

8:30 – 11:00 – Work. I work from home as an application admin for a company based in Seattle, so this is my quiet time of the day.

11:00 – Realize that I haven’t moved in 3 hours so I get up to stretch, pee, get a beverage, and let the dogs out. I may clean the litter box during this break.

11:30-1:00 – Work, but my heart isn’t in it anymore because while I actually love what I do, it’s very difficult and stressful. And when Seattle comes online, they are very difficult and stress-inducing. Especially if idly has recently snowed. So I do a little work, chat in a Skye convo with 3 other coworkers that has literally been going on for 4 years (and all three are atheists!). I also spend some of this time talking to my cats.

1:00-1:30 – Lunch! An official break so I can do more email, FB, and blog checking.

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I’m ABD in a grad program in the humanities, and my “average” day really changes a lot depending on whether or not I’m currently working on any major projects, on any important deadlines, or teaching.

At the moment I’m not teaching, which means I’m free to indulge my non-24 sleep habits (possibly disorder). For the last few days I’ve been waking in the evening and going to bed in the early afternoon, but generally speaking I tend to stabilise around a 4pm-8am kind of thing, especially since I have meatspace commitments in afternoons or evenings (I sing in a choir and am taking Japanese for fun).

Lately I’ve been working on a big grant proposal, usually editing new drafts overnight that my supervisor can then work on during the day. Other than that it’s mainly downloaded TV (just finished Downton Abbey and nearly done with Deadwood) and video games (just finished Catherine and started Radiant Historia). While I do love the freedom my schedule allows, I’m the first to admit that my lifestyle as is can be very isolating if I’m not careful.

If im on days:
Awake for 5am, do morning stuff till 5.30 drive to work
6-2 work
Home for 2.30
Either record some lets play or go for a run
watch tv/ play a video game or go on the net
Boyfriend come home about 6pm
Eat about 7-8 ish then curl up on the sofa watch tv
Bed for 11

If im on afters
Get worken up about 8.40am to swap cars overs so boyfriend can go to work, either train or game, eat at 12, go to work at 1.15 work 1.45- 12.00 midnight, home eat bed for 3am

I’ve been adjusting to the departure from university life. My days vary, as I work 2X week (art gallery, visitor services) and volunteer once a week at a collective infoshop & drop-in centre, and fill the other days with at least one big “outing” (such as going to the Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and Tuesdays). I generally stop by the aforementioned collective infoshop on most weekdays, where I will discuss and read and share space with like-minded folks.
My evenings (if there aren’t any events happening) are often spent with my close friend, or my roommate, or both. We like playing cards lately (double-solitaire, or rummy).
In between, there is a lot of empty space in which I attempt productivity with house-tasks, creative projects, errands. I pace inside my own head a lot; thinking about the future and what I’m “doing with my life” (which will not be the standard career-marriage-retirement path), because I’ve been feeling stagnant. And thoughts about creating change, about how to organize, about projects, and so on.

What is a typical day in your life like?
5:05 a.m. Wake up and dress – out the door by 5:20
6:00 a.m. Work (HIV research at a major university)
2:30ish p.m. leave work and have a 45 minute commute.
3:30 p.m. Home to work in the garden, read, sew or work on an ongoing project
5:00ish – put dinner together
6:00 ish – have dinner with husband and watch Rachel Maddow
7:00 work on projects while husband watches the tee vee
8:30 p.m. write in journal for half an hour
9 p.m. BED

Weekends are an entirely different animal. If I’m not with friends, I spend most of my weekends on sunny days out in my garden during the late winter and spring and early summer. Late summer and fall are entirely dedicated to Hallowe’en preparations and winter I knit and crochet.

How does a typical day in your life reflect your personality and your interests?

My job is awesome. I love it. My mini-farm is the best thing that I ever did for myself other than my tattoos. It brings me joy like nothing else. I could go on and on, but it would be an entire post and I just don’t have time for that today!